As the NFL anthem controversy continues with its divisive rhetoric, former NFL coach Tony Dungy has a simple fix:

Give players a voice.

Advertisement

He has a very practical way to do that. We connected recently in Tampa, where Dungy and his wife Lauren were at a book signing at Barnes & Noble promoting a new series of children’s books they co-authored. The conversation dovetailed into the NFL, where Dungy earned a stout reputation — and a Super Bowl title — coaching the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Indianapolis Colts.

Here’s my question and Dungy’s thoughtful — and practical — answer:

If you were coaching today how would you deal with the 53 men in your locker room with so much going on from a social and political perspective?

Dungy: “I’ve always tried to pull my teams together. And the championship teams are together. They don’t agree on anything but they work together, they have common goals and common thoughts. In terms of what’s going on now, I stressed to my teams that we wanted to be part of the community, we wanted to be active, we wanted to be involved, and so when you have guys that do that are doing tremendous things in the community and building relationships and bonding with people and encouraging young people. When they see things that are going wrong, you can’t say, ‘well, don’t talk about that’ or ‘don’t raise that issue’

I would applaud these guys in their efforts to make a difference, and that’s the thing that I see differently than many people. I don’t look at these guys as being negative. And it’s not negative toward the flag or negative toward law enforcement or military. They’re trying to be a voice for people who don’t have a voice, and they’re trying to make their communities better.

The one thing I would do is ask, ‘What is the best way to get your message across? What’s the most effective way to tell your story?’ If I were still coaching today, I would have a team meeting, the first meeting of the year, and say, ‘I know you guys have some concerns. We’ve demonstrated during the national anthem. But I propose a better way. Let me give you 15 minutes of my weekly press conference when you have all the media here. You can sit down and talk about your concerns. What you see are the problems and the solutions. Things you would like to see done. Let’s articulate that at my press conference. Your voice can be heard. And then you won’t have to take those three minutes when maybe there is some confusion on what the message is and what you’re trying to get across.’

That’s the way the league, the owners the coaches the players can work together and be constructive in making a difference.They have a platform. The league should give time better ways to do that, not just say ‘don’t do it here,’ but what are the alternatives?